The attack occurred two days after the start of the 10-day Shiite festival leading up to Ashoura.

It was originally played to celebrate the annual Shiite festival, the Mourning of Muharram.

In early March, suicide bombers blew themselves up around the Shiite shrines here and in Baghdad during a Shiite festival, killing nearly 200.

As a result, 1979 saw a marked increase in the mobilisation of the Shiite community in Saudi Arabia, with demonstrations often being centered around Shiite festivals.

King Arjun of Gujarat permitted a Muslim trader from Ormuz to build a mosque in Gujarat and even paid for the expenses of a certain Shiite festival.

In February, before Iranian pilgrims flooded into Iraq for the Shiite festival of Ashura, American military officials said they were monitoring Iranian intelligence agents working out of central Baghdad.

In August, Shiite community leaders in Qatif announced that they would publicly celebrate the Day of Ashura festival, despite the fact that celebration of Shiite festivals was banned.

At a meeting with the US Ambassador, the leaders of all the Iraqi parties agreed to bring forward the date to March 16, to prevent the meeting clashing with the Shiite festival of Arba'een.

During the Shiite festival of Ashura this year, marked by 10 days of pilgrimage to Najaf and Karbala, some half a million pilgrims walked and drove through the province without reports of a single insurgent attack.

Mr. Mehsud may also have orchestrated the suicide attack here, in the old city of Peshawar on Jan. 27, when a bomber approached police officers on foot and detonated himself as they were organizing security for the Shiite festival to mark Muharram.

In the lead-up to the Day of Ashura, which involves large numbers of pilgrims travelling, some to Najaf, for Shiite festivals, the Iraqi officials were said to discovered a plot to assassinate the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and other Shia religious leaders by the insurgents.

The Mahestan mall in South Tehran is sometimes called "the honeycomb" of the Basij, the Iranian youth militia, because it is here that Basijis, as the militia members are known, buy and sell banners for the Shiite festival of Ashura, as well as religious books and posters.

General Kimmitt said American commanders had decided to maintain a "passive" stance in the two holy cities for the duration of the Shiite festival of Arbain, which begins over the weekend, so as not to further endanger millions flocking to observances commemorating the end of 40 days' mourning for a murdered Shiite saint.